GREEN BAY, WI (WTAQ) – Brown County Executive Troy Streckenbach has vetoed a budget measure which would raise the pay of non-seasonal county employees who aren’t governed by labor agreements about $400.
“We realize and recognize that the economy is still chugging along and still struggling,” Streckenbach says. “United Way of Wisconsin released a report showing that 40 percent of our working families throughout our community are struggling to make ends meet, and now is not the time to have taxpayers fund a 2 percent increase for employees.”
The numbers released on September 13 by the United Way of Wisconsin, is broken down county-by-county, includes the number and percent of households by income, Economic Viability Dashboard scores, Household Survival Budget, key economic indicators, and data for each municipality in the county (where available).
According to the Asset Limited Income Constrained, Employed (ALICE) data, Brown County has 39% of households living at or below the basic cost of living, or ALICE threshold.
“The fact of the matter is that Social Security recipients are receiving a ‘wage increase’ of $5 per month and paying 22% more for their health insurance premiums,” Streckenbach says, noting that his veto returns the 2017 budget to the 1% cost-of-living adjustment previously approved by the county board.
“I don’t like taxes any more than the next guy, but to clip a portion of a very small cost of living increase, which if anything, what it does is offset health care cost increases to the employees to me is unconscionable,” says Patrick Moynihan, Jr., Brown County Board Chairman. “There’s a cost associated for the services that are expected by the citizens of Brown County and this is just a small cost.”
The additional $400 to those affected county employees would account for an increase of $686,900 to the tax levy. Moynihan adds that there’s a problem with employee retention in Brown County.
The Wisconsin Department of Employment Relations Commission, per Streckenbach, set the union salary cost-of-living adjustment, or salary increase, to a maximum of 0.67% for January 1, 2017.
“It’s my understanding we’ve lost 12% of our employees for this year, perhaps longer than that, we tend to train them and they go elsewhere,” Moynihan says. “This is just a small, little increase and I might add they’ve had salary freezes for many years prior to this.”
In a letter to board supervisors, Streckenbach wrote that the vetoes will help keep the county’s tax rate at $4.54 per $1,000 and protect the taxpayers. As for the retention issue, Streckenbach indicated they’re looking to address that.
“We’re requesting to keep $100,000 for us to be able to go into some of the areas that we’re actually seeing high turnover rate, adjust those areas so that we remain competitive in the future,” says Streckenbach.
Streckenbach is also vetoing a requirement to have the Human Resources Department pay out retired Sheriff Deputy’s sick leave bank because the proposal has tax consequences for other county employees that use the money for health insurance.
The $291.3 million budget proposal was released in September, and now comes down to a veto session being held by the board of supervisors on Monday at 6 p.m. 18 of the 26 board members are needed to override Streckenbach’s vetoes.
“I haven’t had the opportunity to speak to any supervisors,” Moynihan says. “I’m not an arm twister, everyone has their own districts. We’ll see where the chips fall on Monday night.”
The meeting takes place inside Legislative Room 203 at Green Bay City Hall, 100 N. Jefferson Street.
